Plaster Repair: How To Get Rid Of Those Ugly Textured Walls Or Ceilings
It happens all the time!
You find that house that beckons to you. Maybe it IS a little older, but the basic style suits you just fine. It's laid out nicely, with adequate room size, and some great features. The price isn't bad. And you really like the neighborhood.
But there's just one problem. Those walls and ceilings ... well, they leave something to be desired. As a matter of fact, they are downright ... ugly! The textures are awful.
What can be done? And, is it worth the cost of doing them over? Another way to look at it, is it worth the "cost" of leaving the texture as is? Consider plaster repair as a way of covering those ugly walls.
You can always bring in a professional who can evaluate your situation and suggest remedies.
Or, you can decide to fix them yourself.
The latter choice is certainly do-able, if you are willing to follow some guidelines and put in the effort. In my years of work as a plaster and drywall repair and renovation specialist, I have helped many clients tackle such projects successfully.
Here are some basic considerations.
If the house in question has interior plaster surfaces, you have to determine what problems, if any (besides textures), may exist.
Do you have holes? Cracks? Sagging ceilings? Water-damage anywhere?
You don't even want to do much of anything else until you first deal with these. One exception is if you have "popcorn" ceiling texture. This you will need to scrape off first, before you can evaluate the state of the plaster or drywall underneath and effect plaster repair.
Many times, I encounter popcorn texture where a previous owner had it sprayed over an old ceiling to cover up defects like cracks or old texture.
Because of the problems that often develop with popcorn (acoustic spray) ceilings, most people after a while are glad to get rid of it. Some just choose to spray paint it and leave it. It's your choice.
Once you have repaired cracks, holes, etc. (more on that later), you can now approach your unattractive texture situation.
In my experience, the simplest solution to ugly texture is to bury it.
This I find is a very satifying solution for plaster repair. I'm talking about SKIM COATING the old surface with enough new material to completely hide the problem texture.
This is something you can do. Here is how I would suggest you go about it.
You will be using regular drywall joint compound, the all-purpose/multipurpose variety. You know, that lovely stuff that drywall finishers use to tape and cover drywall seams. Because it contains glue, drywall mud will stick to clean, tight, dust-free painted surfaces.
For tools, I prefer a plasterer's hawk (mortarboard) and plaster trowel, five-inch blade. This I was trained on, but you can also use a mud pan and eight or ten inch broadknife. You will also need a four or five inch taping knife to use in loading your pan or hawk.
I would use the mud straight out of the container as is. For our purposes, thinning is probably unnecessary for plaster repair. Work out of a five gallon bucket. Even if you buy your material in the plastic lined cardboard boxes, dump the mud into a clean bucket and work from that. You'll have lots less problems with dried mud chips falling into your working material.
Try to keep the sides of your bucket clean, and keep it covered as much as possible.
Okay, here's the plaster repair technique. After applying blue painters masking tape where necessary, load your hawk or pan and start at the top of the wall next to the ceiling. You will be working across and down, using horizontal strokes only. Work in two or three foot long stripes, side by side without lateral breaks.
You will use horizontal strokes for the whole first coat. As you drag your loaded tool across the old texture, you will find that the tool jiggles. This creates ripples in the mud you are applying. Yes, it looks awful, but that's okay. The ripples are part of this plaster repair technique.
When you have the whole wall covered, it will look like a mess. It's alright, just try to get the mud to be approximately the same thickness everywhere. Let dry 12 to 24 hours, depending on heat and humidity.
Now, for the second coat. What you are doing now is filling in the ripples using vertical strokes. Again, start at the top, in the corner and work your way across and down. Any big "goobers" or thick chunks from the first coat can be knifed off by holding your blade flat as you encounter them. (Just keep the chips out of your wet mud.)
When your second coat is completely dry, repeat exactly, with vertical strokes. When that is dry, go back and fill in any areas that seem to need it. Your last step is to sand everything with medium sanding grit, either paper folded around a wood block or those little sponge sanding blocks work real well.
Dried drywall compound is fairly soft, so go easy on the sanding. Apply just enough pressure to remove the lines, etc. Divots are better filled than sanded out, which may just create a bigger low spot.
If your plan is to apply wallpaper, put on two good coats of drywall PVA primer. If you are going to put on new texture(maybe a Southwestern look?), you can do that right over the raw material (depending on what texture you are doing), or put on the texture after a coat of PVA.
If your initial inspection of the plaster or drywall reveals problem areas requiring plaster repair before skim coating, check out my website at Plaster Wall-Ceiling Solutions. Look at the navigation buttons like HOLES, CRACKS, SAGGED CEILINGS for how to repair information.
This article was contributed by Edwin Brown. If you would like to learn other interesting and educational facts about plaster repair for your walls and ceilings, then please visit his website at: Plaster Wall/Ceiling Solutions Good luck and have fun!
 
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